What a beautiful day to be on the beach and doing some good. After meeting at the Great White House for a briefing on dos and donts of beach clean ups the team of about 50 headed off to Romans Bay, an area we were soon to discover is full of litter. The younger children from Flower Valley Early Learning Centre did the Kleinbaai harbour area.

Data cards are completed so statistics can be compiled into the national and international databases with people from all over the world submitting data. Litter on the beaches is most often from that thrown into rivers or from boats but ultimately begins with us. It was quite an eye opener for the children as we picked up among other things a toilet cistern, a wetsuit, lots of plastic, and about 600 cable ties. The question arises as to where these cable ties come from and one of the reasons we complete data cards. Other concerns 429 strapping bands, 176 pieces of rope, 240 straws. Sadly the list does not stop there. In an hour we collected 87,5kgs bags plus some other items not weighed.

It really is a big lesson for those on a clean-up who realise the extent of waste. Besides items able to be recycled, waste is moved from the beach to a landfill highlighting the need to reduce, reuse and recycle.

We closed the day with some hot dogs and cooldrinks at the Great White House and a quick quiz with some Volkswagen penguin and dolphin shirts up for grabs.

Thanks to Benjamin Kondokter and Liezl Bezuidenhout of Overstrand Municipality; Marlette Longland of Eco Schools and Lily Upton of Football Foundation; Oliver Jewell of Marine Dynamics; Flower Valley Early Learning Centre, Gansbaai Primary and Masakhane Primary; volunteers from Marine Dynamics and Football Foundation for helping the children fill in their data cards. And special thanks to John Kieser of Plastics SA for bags, gloves, data cards and water.